Frederick Leslie Roy Dalgarno (2 December 1910 – 1 February 2001) was an Australian

social realist Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

Early life, education and training

Born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria (Australia) Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...

in 1910, Dalgarno was educated at

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

Grammar School. From 1926 to 1930 he attended National Gallery Art School in Melbourne, where he met social realists

Noel Counihan Noel Counihan (4 October 19135 July 1986) was an Australian social realist painter, printmaker, cartoonist and illustrator active in the 1940s and 1950s in Melbourne. An atheist, communist, and art activist, Counihan made art in response to the p ...

and

Herbert McClintock Herbert McClintock (1906-1985) was an Australian social realist artist. Biography McClintock was born in Perth, Western Australia. He studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School from 1925 to 1927 and again in 1930, where he met fellow ...

. He then attended the Academy of Art under

Dattilo Rubbo Antonio Salvatore Dattilo Rubbo (Napoli 21 June 1870 – Sydney 1 June 1955) was an Italy, Italian-born artist and art teacher active in Australia from 1897. Rubbo, or Dattilo-Rubbo, was born in Naples in 1870, and spent his early childhood i ...

from 1930 to 1932. From 1932 to 1934 he attended East Sydney Technical College Painting & Drawing. Later, between 1951 and 1953 he was at Ecole des Beaux Arts in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, including in 1951–52 William Hayter’s

Atelier 17 Atelier 17 was an art school and studio that was influential in the teaching and promotion of printmaking in the 20th century. Originally located in Paris, the studio relocated to New York during the years surrounding World War II. It moved back ...

(etching). In 1980 he studied etching and collography at the Pratt Graphic Centre, New York.

Career

He joined the

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian political party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been i ...

in the 1930s but, according to art historian Bernard Smith, his

bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

temperament was incompatible with party puritanism. He left the party in 1949. In the late 1930s he travelled to the canefields of North

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, where he concentrated on his painting. He co-founded the Studio of Realist Art (SORA)

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

in 1946. From 1947 to 1949 he worked as lecturer at the East Sydney Technical College. After studying in Paris, he moved to India, where he co-founded ''Editions Anarkali'', publisher of fine arts in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, while being employed as a visiting lecturer in lithography at the School of Fine Arts. In 1953 he won the First Prize for Diploma Students, lithography, at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris. In 1965 he won first prize at the Mahasartra State (

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

) exhibition. In 1975 he moved to

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, where he worked as a Lecturer in drawing and composition at the Auckland Society of Arts.

Death

Dalgarno died in Auckland of pneumonia in 2001.

Legacy

Described as a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

bohemian and a social realist painter, his work commissioned by the Australian maritime and mining trade unions is perhaps the best remembered, for its depiction of Australian workers and working conditions. The art historian Bernard Smith wrote of Dalgarno: "He belongs to that great generation of social realist Australian artists who flourished during World War II and early post-war years but – in the aftermath of the Cold War – are now largely stored and forgotten by curators." ('Artist of the Everyday' ''The Australian'', 23 February 2001)

References

External links

Roy Dalgarno — Tribute to an Artist
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalgarno, Roy 1910 births 2001 deaths Artists from Melbourne Social realist artists 20th-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian male artists Australian male painters People educated at Ballarat Grammar School National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni